The leaf on different portions of a tobacco plant have different characteristics including nicotine content, color, body, texture, maturity, alkaloid content, and smoke flavor. For example, the tip portion adjacent the top of the plant generally has the youngest leaves and highest nicotine content. Tobacco companies use different classes of leaves to make different consumer products. Thus, proper and efficient classification of leaves is an important step in the overall cured tobacco sales process. The present method and apparatus allow one to more quickly and efficiently classify and separate leaves from whole tobacco plants for sale than previously possible.